By Peggy O'Farrell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

America is getting creakier.

New figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in three Americans has arthritis or some other form of chronic joint pain - an increase of nearly 63 percent from previous estimates.

According to a study released Thursday by the CDC, roughly one-third of Ohio and Indiana residents have arthritis or chronic joint pain - 35.4 percent of the population, or 3 million people, in Ohio, and 37 percent, or 1.68 million people, in Indiana.

The impact is higher in Kentucky, where 41.1 percent of residents, or 1.25 million people, are affected.

West Virginia, where 42.6 percent of the population is affected, had the highest prevalence of arthritis and chronic joint pain.

In 1997, the CDC estimated that 43 million Americans had arthritis or other chronic joint pain. The new study increases the figure to 70 million.

Experts say people should get help at the first sign of joint pain.

"A lot of people will tolerate pain because they think it's a normal part of aging," said Dr. Arline Bohannon, a geriatrician with Alliance Primary Care's Senior Care program. "It's not."

Overall, Dr. Bohannon says, she thinks the CDC's estimate is accurate.

"We're probably going to have an exponential increase in the next 10, 20 years as the baby boomers continue to get older."

The figures were based on a survey of more than 212,000 adults who were asked if they experienced chronic joint pain or if they had been diagnosed with arthritis.

Arthritis, the leading cause of disability, costs $82 billion a year in lost productivity and medical expenses.

Laura Strassell, has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for 15 years.

"One in three people is huge," said Mrs. Strassell, of Landen. "It's an epidemic, and it's not getting the attention it deserves."

Mrs. Strassell was 23 when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease in which the linings of the joints and internal organs become inflamed.

Medications like methotrexate, which acts on the immune system in a way doctors don't understand, help manage her symptoms. But living with rheumatoid arthritis is a day-to-day proposition, she said.

"The symptoms come and go. Today I feel great. Yesterday, I could barely get out of bed. That's the nature of the beast, and that makes it really hard to get diagnosed," she said.

It makes caring for her three children - 7-year-old twins Erin and Michael and baby William, not quite 1 year old - especially challenging.

Since her diagnosis, she's had nine surgeries to repair joints damaged by the disease.

Among the CDC'S findings:

More women than men - 37.3 percent versus 28.4 percent - report arthritis and chronic joint pain.

Whites and blacks - 35.3 and 21.5 percent, respectively - were more likely to report symptoms than Hispanics or other ethnic groups.

Roughly 300,000 children are affected by arthritis. At Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a leading research center on juvenile arthritis, researchers are studying the genetic links and treatments.

Dr. David Glass, director of the William S. Rowe Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at Children's, says researchers are trying to identify which genes play a role in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and how those genes are expressed.

The hospital is also the headquarters for the Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group, a national consortium of providers that oversees extensive clinical trials for new drugs and therapies.

Researchers at Children's did extensive testing on methotrexate and on medications called TNF inhibitors, which control inflammation by blocking the proteins - called tumor necrosis factor - that cause the inflammation. Enbrel is one TNF inhibitor.

"These drugs are having a radically positive effect, we believe, on the outcome of arthritis in children," Dr. Glass said.

E-mail pofarrell@enquirer.com